INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis woman has been arrested and charged after allegedly stealing hand dryers from a south side Starbucks with the intent to sell them on eBay.
Darrelle Colinot, 39, is charged with one count of felony theft wherein the value of the property is between $750 and $50,000.
According to recently released court documents, around 1 p.m. on Thursday, July 26, an IMPD officer responded to the Starbucks located at 8817 US 31 South, near County Line Road on Indy's south side, on a report of a theft.
The caller stated a woman was seen carrying a pink handbag, believed to contain stolen items from a business next door to the Starbucks, stealing two Dyson HU02 model hand dryers off the bathroom wall and fleeing in a red Chevrolet Impala.
It was not until Monday, Aug. 5 that police were finally able to review the surveillance footage from the Starbucks on the day of the alleged theft.
Court documents say the video showed a man and a woman enter the Starbucks at 11:54 a.m. The man, identified as 24-year-old Seth Ball of Indianapolis, was seen wearing a Chicago Cubs baseball jersey that can be easily identified in the video.
The woman, later identified as Colinot, was seen on video entering the bathroom of the Starbucks with an empty pink handbag. Court documents say Colinot was seen leaving the bathroom at 12:01 p.m. and the pink handbag appeared to be full. Store employees realized a short time after Colinot left the restaurant that two hand dryers had gone missing from the bathrooms.
The BMV registration on the red Impala getaway car reportedly came back to Seth Ball, which eventually led police to Colinot.
During the investigation, court documents say police became aware of an earlier report on July 18 from the manager of a McDonald's located at 5030 Southport Crossing Place in which a woman was seen stealing a hand dryer from the restaurant's bathroom around 7:30 a.m. The report stated that the woman later came back around 9:30 a.m. with a man and a child and blocked off the bathroom doors while the man and child made off with the other hand dryer for a total loss of $3,000.
In the surveillance camera footage from the McDonald's, the man and woman were allegedly easily identified by police as Ball and Colinot and that Colinot was again seen with a pink handbag that looked to be the same as the one she was seen with at the Starbucks.
The manager of the McDonald's also gave police evidence the stolen hand dryers were being sold on eBay. This led police to Colinot by noting her eBay seller name was darrcol-92, a portmanteau of her name, Darrelle Colinot.
Court documents say the manager of the Starbucks provided police with the serial numbers of the stolen hand dryers, which also helped lead police to Colinot.
Using this evidence, a judge then issued a search warrant for Colinot's residence. During the search warrant, court documents say police found Ball near a red Chevrolet Impala. Ball allegedly attempted to flee from police but was eventually detained.
After arresting Ball, officers went around to the front of the house, found Colinot and arrested her. Court documents say police found a taped box that appeared to be ready for shipment along with an open box containing two Dyson HU02 hand dryers. The taped box was later found to also have contained two Dyson HU02 hand dryers. All but one of the hand dryers were allegedly missing their serial numbers.
During questioning, Colinot allegedly told police that she had just received the dryers in the taped box, but did not give a clear answer to where the dryers came from.
Eventually, court documents say Colinot admitted she was the person with the pink handbag in the surveillance videos. She allegedly told police that the children in the videos were hers and that Seth Ball was her cousin.
During a search of Colinot's purse, police reportedly found several hex screws, which were later found to be the exact type used to secure the Dyson hand dryers to their respective walls. Court documents say most of the hand dryers had their serial numbers removed and that the dryers that still had their serial numbers did not match the ones allegedly stolen from the Starbucks.
Colinot's initial hearing is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 9 at 8:30 a.m. Ball was also arrested in connection with the incident, but he faces a misdemeanor charge of resisting law enforcement. His initial hearing is set for Aug. 9 at 9:30 a.m.
